#Love London. Love the World  

Climate Action 22: Clean up London’s waterways (Global Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation)

Target audience: Key Stage 3 Biology students

1. Invent a new toilet

In 2011 Rohit, a 16 year old from India, decided that toilets were wasting too much fresh water. He invented a new type of toilet called the Vacu-flush. You can watch Rohit explain his inventions here:

Click here to see some more information on Rohit’s ideas here.

2. The living river

Now we will consider water from a London perspective.

The Thames is a thriving and complex ecosystem, which has changed considerably over the years. An understanding of the impact of the environment on ecosystems (i.e. the interplay of biotic and abiotic factors) is required to understand the changing populations in the Thames. In this unit students start at the macroscopic, moving towards the microscopic, as they seek to understand what affects living things. This can then allow them to consider their own impact on the environment and how our waterways can be improved. The purpose of this unit is to produce a flyer, leaflet, short video, podcast or poster that can be used to describe and explain what affects river ecosystems.

With special thanks to the Museum of London and UCL (Institute of Education).

Click here to see the resource The Living River.

3. Background to this resource

This project aims to:

1. Connect London’s schools to great resources based on their city and
2. To suggest ways to introduce a global perspective to their work.

Each blog will be based on two major curriculum resources available freely to teachers:

1. The London Curriculum– developed by experts in their field working in partnership with the Mayor of London and his Education and Youth team.
2. The World’s Largest Lesson– produced by Project Everyone in partnership with Unicef to help schools address three major challenges:

• End extreme poverty
• Fight inequality and injustice
• Tackle climate change

Each blog will aim to provide ways for teachers to reflect on these big issues through their own contexts, subject areas and from a London perspective.

• London’s National Park City launches in July 2019. Find out more.
• Outdoor Classroom Day: 23/05/19. Sign up to Outdoor Classroom Day
• London Climate Action Week: 1st-8th July 2019

Thanks to the teams at City Hall and Project Everyone for providing these great resources. Some of my blog has been adapted from their websites.